P1: TITLE - DESCRIBE THE WORK OF A GRAPHIC NOVEL OR COMIC PUBLISHER
COMPANY: DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher. It is the publishing sector of DC Entertainment (a subsidiary of Warner Bros). DC comics Specialise in superhero comics and graphic novels and are responsible for themaking of iconic characters, such as, Wonder woman, Superman , Batman, The Flash,ect. Although starting of as a comic book printingcompany asthecompanyhas grown and developed it hasexpanded its media platforms and now, as well asmaking comic print books, createsfilms (both live action and animation), Tv programs , games and digital c
Wonder Woman
The character has been written multipletimesbymultiple people and as a result i have chosen to analyse the mostrecent wonder woman.
Character Origin: She born as Princess Diana and grew up on Themyscira, otherwise known as Paradise Island. This island is completely detached from man’s world andonly consists of women. The group formed their own society and cultivated their world. Diana grew up believing she was born from clay, but it wasn’t until later that it was revealed that Diana has a father, Zeus. She trained with the God of War as she grew up, only to leave him after she realised the value and use of mercy. Later on she met her a mortal man, Steve Trevor after he crashed on to the island. This eventually leads her to man’s world where she becomes Wonder Woman.
Personality: The New 52 version of the character has been portrayed to be a more young, headstrong, loving, fierce and wilful person. Brian Azzarello stated in a video interview with DC Comics that hercharacter will take onconfident, impulsive and good-hearted persona .
Significance and importance: Sheis regarded as oneof the most iconic Superheors ever. She is, arguably , thebiggestinfluence and representation of women in themaledominated world of superheroes, this means hercharacter and personality is of massive importance to female fansof theDC and Marvel worlds. She isthefirst ever femaleSuperhero to be given herown title and is also phoneof thefirstfemaleSuperheroes that hasnot derivedor be a spin off of a male superhero andisalso theonly female character seen and accepted to bea leader and original memberof thejusticeleague . So she has an iconic status to many fans of the Superhero universe in terms of feminism in the industry and also in terms of good femalerepresentation.
In addition to this sheisalso regarded as an important LGBT icon in thesuperhero universe as ever since thereboot of thecharacterthewriters of Wonder Woman said in September 2016, that she is canonically bisexual, according to her rebooted Rebirth origin. Also previouslyin thehistory of Wonder woman she hashad the line"My country is all women. To us, it's not 'gay' marriage. It's just marriage” And she is one of the first main superhero to be openly labeled as an LGBT character and many people says thisis taking big strides forwards in terms of acceptance and acknowledgementof positive LGBT representation in the media
Most recentBook/novel: Wonder Woman TP Vol 1: The Lies (Rebirth)
Art (penciller, colourist) by: Liam Sharp Cover by: Liam Sharp Variant cover by: Frank Cho Written by: Greg Rucka
The Joker
Comic : BATMAN #26
Origin: Thereisno definite origin to thejokerthus far and as a result little is known about his past however manyregard this to add to the mystery and help to define the Joker as one of the greatest threats to our heroes (mainlyBatman) and the people of Gotham they've sworn to protect. He's killed a Robin, disabled Batgirl, and tortured and murdered countless people throughout the DC Universe.
Powers: High intelligence Skilled chemist Access to a variety of gadgets Experience in hand to hand combat
Physical appearance: Elongated red smile Stark-white skin Slicked back green hair Prominent teeth
Personality: The Joker is arguably oneof themostunpredictablecharacters in the DC universe often being described as unstable, chaotic, manic andimpulsive. Oneof themostprominent features of thejokers personality is his sadism and thepleasure he gets out of causingpain and how he often laughs andmakesjoke at the expense and suffering ofothers combined with hismeticulous eye and attention to detail.
Significance/ importance : The appearance of a clownis supposed to represent innocence, comedy and joy not a deranged psychopathic killer. This element ofJoker’s appearance has actually become iconic, an instantly recognisable across the globe, this has evoked adeeperfear and evenless tolerance of clowns in modern society and the Joker takesthe mystery of who a clown isand hadturned it into moreof anightmare then a playful friend.
Another reason as to why the joker is so iconicis because he isn’t 2 dimensional andhas a layers upon layersof personas and personality behind his exterior which isn’t often the casewith a lot of superhero villains and means that the audience struggles to label him and struggle to find thelogic behindhis actions and this can cause a sense of moral panic amongst thecomics audience.
Art by: Mikel Janin Cover by: Mikel Janin Variant cover by: Tim Sale Written by: Tom King
COMPANY: Manger Entertainment
Manga Entertainmentis a Japanese animator and comic book publishingcompanybased and createdin Japan. Manga Entertainmentspecialises in theproduction of anime and MangaUK isthe biggest Japanese animation companyin theUK. MangaEntertainmentis not only responsible for a lot of successful anime andlive action films, TV programs and graphic novels but also extendsto video games as well such as Pokemon.
L
Graphic novel: Death note Series
Origin: L was found by Watari as a child and was bought to an orphanage commonly called Wammy's House, a home for gifted children. Sometime after, Watari realized that L had extraordinary intelligence. L became a detective at a young, unknown age and eventually gained a reputation as the greatest detective in the world whose opinion is highly rated and sought after.
Appearance:
Very slim. Tall. Untidy black hair and dark eyes. Shadows below each of his eyes. Blue jean trousers and a long-sleeved white shirt. Hardly ever wears shoes or socks.
Characteristics: L is usually described as highly intelligent but very secretiveand quirky in hismannerisms. Healso has a very sarcastic and dry senseof humour and is also very meticulous and particular.
Significance/ Importance: Manypeople Value thecharacter L very highlyas he is seen to be trying to follow what is morally right and heis also incredibly clever so tends to think through his actions andsituation. In terms of physicality people find the character L to be almost arole model in that senseas heis a force of good in death notebut also he is not thestereotypical “goodguy”/hero body shape and since death note has becomepopular all overthe world and not just Japan, thisis very infuencial asit causes people to think that you don’t always haveto look like theperfect superhero to be aforce for good.
Tsugumi Ohba: Writer Takeshi Obata: Artist
Levi Ackerman
Graphic novel: Attack on Titan
Origin: Levi is the son of Kuchel Ackerman, a prostitute. One day, Kenny Ackerman, Kuchel's older brother, came to the city to see her; only to find that she is dead. There, he finds a young d Levi sitting in front of his mother's bed. Kenny decides to take care of him,he raise Levi as well as he could: life and protection skills and Levi also learned to use his own inner power that he possessed as a member of the Ackerman family. One day, in the subterranean city, Levi started a fight which he won easily. At that moment, Kenny decided to leave him behind, as he had given Levi the skills he needed to survive.
Appearance : Short, straight black hair styled in an undercut Dull blue eyes with dark circles under them A youthful face. Short in height Muscularphysique
Personality: He has strong senseormorals and empathy, however, he will only show respect to thosehe deems worthy. Heshows very little emotion. His manner of speaking tends to be very blunt and direct, even to thepoint of insulting, and his comments are often harsh and/or inappropriate. Heis also obsessed with cleanliness and keeping things clean.
Significance / importance: AOT hasbecomea prominentand popular series in mangaand theting that is differentand perhaps very influential and unusual isthat Levi is one of the mostpopular characters andyet is also oneof themost closed and stereotypicallyseen as an annoying characters andthe fact that he hasbecome an extremelypopular and influential characteris a way of people learning and showing that they can accept different people as a societynorm and aspopular not just your stereotypical boy/girl next door.
Image Comics is an American Comic book publishing company. It publishes and sells both paper comics and online comics. Mainly producing fantasy comics, such as Plutona, The Walking Dead and Spawn. Although the company isn't a screen media production company some of it's comics, such as The Walking dead have ventured into other mediums Like TV show and video game.
Richard Grimes
Comic: The Walking Dead (Issue #1) (Image Comics)
Origin: Rick Grimes (Police deputy from Kentucky) awakens from a coma and discovers the world is now infested with zombies. He sets out on amission to go find his family (wife and son), where he meets different other survivors and encounters many challenges.A group of survivors forms and eventually Rick a assumes a leading position in the group. His leadership qualities and experience lead him to become the leader of a sizable community near Washington, D.C., continuing to deal with many human threats along the way that cost the lives of his friends and loved ones.
Appearance : Short, light brown hair and beard Fairly tall Strong Build Caucasian-American Wears casual policeuniform. Muscularphysique
Personality: Rick Grimes is presented as a responsible, practice, cautious and caring individual- traits that all indicate he is a good father to his son and leader to the group. The reader begins to identify Rick with being thehero character as he is willing to sacrifice and work through manydifficult and challenging situations to securethe safety of hisgroup.
Significance / importance: Rick is the main protagonist of The Walking Dead and his importance lies within this, he is the first character that theaudience develop a close relationship with andidentify with as both audience and Rick begin the graphic novel with similarignorance of the situation. Also thedepth of the character provides at least onething mostof the audience can relateto, for example, he is presentedas a Father, a Spouse, a Leader, a friend, morally confused and as a protecter, which is important because it provides enough of a connection to thenovel to make theescapism addictivebecause the audience want to followthe Rick as they relate and care for him.
Writer: Robert Kirkman illustrated : Tony Moore (Issue #1)
Teddy
Graphic novel Plutona (Image Comics)
Origin: Teddy and his friends stumbled upon the body of Plutona, Metro City's greatest superhero after school one day. They all then agreed to bury her body and keep the death a secret to keep the town safe. Together they agreed to move the body and hide it from the others,
Appearance : Short blonde hair fairly small Physically not very strong Caucasian-American blue eyes
Personality: Teddy is obsessed with superheroes andis asocial outcast, often subjected to bullying. This is mainlybecausehe was caught master baitingin a school bathroom and hasbeen teased ever since andchristened with the name“tugger”.He is determined and will stop at nothing to achieve what he wants, including stealing Plutona’s supposedly dead body and keeping such asecret from hisclosest friends.However, he is very good atplaying it cool and hiding secrets
Significance / importance: He is themain catalyst in the story andhe importantbecausehislies and schemesend up gettingthekidsin more troublethen should'vesupposedly been in. He is important for the reader becausehis decisions are the moral dilemmasof the series and actions are perceived differently by each reader andgets thereader to decide personally if they think whathedid was okay or not.
Writer: Jeff Lemire illustrated :Emi Lenox
Company : Marvel Comics
Often seen as the main rival company to DC Comics, Marvel isan American comic book publishingcompany that specialises in thePublication of comics in theSuperhero genre. It is responsible for brining names such as Spiderman, Captain America, Iron man, ect.
Spiderman /Peter Parker
Comic: Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15
Origin: Peter Parker is a high school kid who gets bitten by a radioactive spider due to this he gains the speed, strength and powers of a spider. He liveswith hisAunt May and Uncle Ben. He sews his own Spider uniform and uses his scientific knowledge to build adevicethat ejects a sticky webb, but he is not interested in fighting crime but more interested in makingmoney by entering TV wrestling competition. However, he completely ignores his chanceto stop arobberon the street and later thesame robberthen goes on to kill and steal andkill his uncle. Peter Parker then adornshis mask to fight crime for the first time and eventually subduesthe criminal, debutingSpiderman as a hero.
Appearance: Peter Parker is a classic nerdy type looking character. He is tall, slender, nearly dressed with tidy short brown hair and big glasses.
The Spider suit consists of a tight body suit and a mask. Thebody suit consists of the colours black, blue and red. The bottom (trouser half) of the suit is blue , where as the top half of the suit is a red background with ablack spider web design on it (the boots her wears match this) andin the centre of his chest there is a small spider emblem. The mask he wears looks like acontinuation of the suit and covered his entire head with wight material cut outs of the eyes.
Personality: In high school Peter Parker was isolated and unpopular . This lead him to be subject to bullying and renderinghim quite shy and quiet. Peter Parker is also Intelligent with a particular skill for science. As Spiderman, Peter Parker was a moreconfident individual and the parts of Peter Parker’s personality, only normally seen via audience, such as humour and morals are more present in the character.
Significance/Importance: The main importanceof spiderman andkey to thecomics success lies mainly in what the character Spiderman/Peter Parker represents to the reader. Spider-Man isso significant to fans because they relate to him. He's not rich, he's not a devilishly handsome player, and even he gets beat up despite being a superhero. As a character person he makes a lot of mistakes, and his emotional ups and downs are often thedriving force behind hisstorylines.
In factmanywould argue that it isnot hissuperhero work that he struggles mostwith in hislifebut ratherthe everyday struggleof relationships, popularity, work, school and letting people down. These are common struggles of the everyday person and creates similarities and shared personal plights between thereader and Peter Parker/Spiderman.
Writer: Stan Lee Penciller: Steve Ditko
Comic book cover artists: Inker: Steve Ditko Editor: Stan Lee Penciler: Jack Kirby
Captain America/Steve Rodgers
Comic: Captain America Comics #1 (1941)
Origin: Steve Rodgers wasrejected form joiningthe main American army in World War 2 due to his frailty and sickness. However, due to his determination and passion to join the army was offered a unique experiment , called“operation rebirth”- designed to create physically superior soldiers for theAmerican military. He was the firsttest subject to receive thesuper soldierserum, however a Nazi spy later killed the Dr responsiblefor making the serum and any of the serum left, leaving Steve rodgers as the only super human created. He was later given a superhero persona andoutfit to serve asboth an anti proper gander figure head and a special intelligence agent and Captain America was born.
Appearance: blonde hair Fairly tall Extremely strong and Muscly blue eyes Wears a suit that representstheAmerican flag. It’s red, white andblue and adorned with the stars and stripes of the American flag.It covers both his head and entire body and he carries a kite shaped bulletproof sheild (to later bereplaced by the, more iconic, circular bullet proof shield)
Personality: Since he made hisstart with the military heseems to embody mostof thequalitiesassociatedwith a soldier: honesty, courage, loyalty, perseverance, andhonour (in particular, military honour). Many people also argue that his senseof moral conscience is a personality trait with Captain America rather than something he's striving to achieve asthroughout thecomicsit never wavers. Also Humility and groundedness is something a lot of people associate with Captain America ashe is determined to not only stay anonymous but also to keep a professional exterior with the lack of celebratingwhen he has victories and never gloats, causing theaudienceto believehe never forgets the importance and struggle of what he is doing and only seeks to aid the war effort not be a hero for his own personal gain.
Significance / importance: Captain America isimportantand significant to manypeople because of the hope and liberty herepresents asCaptain America always wins in thecomics, which is importantbecauseit doesn’t matter how outnumbered he is at the time he always finds a way to succeed, which provideshope to many of thereaders of thecomic. Also thecharacter was setin World War 2 and was an emblem of hope for theworld he was set in, representing (although fictional) thathope can be foundin even the darkestsituations.
In addition to this Steve Rodgerswas outcastfrom the army, however his determination andpassion to standup for what is right provided him with an unexpected opportunityto become Captain America, teaching the audience animportant messagein standing up for andnevergiving up or compromising what you believe in because it will pay off even if thatsnot exactly in theway you expect. This also teaches theaudience that no-matter who you arewether that be asoldieror a small sickly looking Steve Rodgers , you have thepower to make a difference. Many would arguethat thereal significance of Captain Americaisthat he represents the American dream and inspires those to holdon and fight for theirs.
Writer: Joe Simon, Jack Kirby Penciller: Joe Simon, Jack Kirby Cover Artist: Jack Kirby
P2: TITLE - DESCRIBE A CHOSEN GRAPHIC NOVEL OR COMIC PRODUCT
CHOSEN GRAPHIC NOVEL : SCOT PILGRIM
Back ground Information
COMPANY : Format Digest Limited Genre: Comedy/ Fiction/Romance/Fantasy Information in Below Picture: Writer,penciller,inker, colourist , Publisher, Volumes in the series, genre , Back story, personality, Story outline, style
Panelling, text,, structure, visual narrative, iconography, use of formal elements (e.g. line, tone, colour), speech, thought bubbles and box placements, symbols and sound effects
The technical elements (panneling , colour, speech ) creating the pages and story of Scott Piligrim are key to creating meaning in the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim to demonstrate this I have analysed two seperate scenes in the Graphic novels in terms of Panelling, text, structure, visual narrative, iconography, use of formal elements (e.g. line, tone, colour), speech, thought bubbles and box placements, symbols and sound effects:
Summary of some of the different ways meaning is created in comics from analysing Scott Pilgrim
Research into Pannelling
Target Audience
The Target audience of Scott Pilgrim is young adults between the ages of 17-25, that enjoy comic books, gaming and are probably more of a misfit like the main character Scott.
The appeal to the target audience:
The design style often emulates that of a video game and the storyline emulates that of a video game, which combines both the target audiences enjoyment of comics and gaming into one and makes them feel like the comic book is more personal to them as they would have a better understanding and interest of the comic than someone that doesn't share these interests.
The notable characters in the comic range between 17 (Knives Chau) and 31 (Gideon Graves), with the main character Scott being around 23 years old so the target audience can relate easily to the characters in the novel in terms of age and points in there life especially Scot, who is directly in the right age bracket.
The storyline focuses on relationships and growing up, which tends to be the main focus of people in that age bracket as it incorporates the start of becoming an adult, so they can relate to the sort of general struggles that Scott is facing .